Daily Archives: August 31, 2016

Make no mistake about it: if any one of you thinks of himself as wise, in the ordinary sense of the word, then he must learn to be a fool before he really can be wise. Why? Because the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As scripture says: The Lord knows wise men’s thoughts: he knows how useless they are; or again: God is not convinced by the arguments of the wise. So there is nothing to boast about in anything human: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life and death, the present and the future, are all your servants; but you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.

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Luke 5:1-11

Now Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats close to the bank. The fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats – it was Simon’s – and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.

When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners. But Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.’ Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.

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“The Lord knows wise men’s thoughts: he knows how useless they are”

I run a mortgage brokerage firm and as part of my work, I meet with clients who are looking to either take new housing loans or to refinance their existing loans. Prior to this, I had been in the mortgage business for about 12 years. Because of the nature of my work, I am very well-acquainted with the regulations and lending guidelines of the various banks.

Over my time in this business, I have met numerous clients who have their own ideas about the affordability of their loans and the associated rules. Under those circumstances, I have had to (very patiently) explain the intricacies to them, sometimes unsuccessfully.

Such was the situation in the gospel of today.

Simon and the other fishermen had spent the whole night fishing without a single catch. Along comes Jesus, a carpenter, who asked them to go out to deeper water and cast their nets. Imagine that! A carpenter teaching a fisherman how to fish!

Rather than arguing with Jesus, Simon obeyed him and did as He said. What faith!

As we journey along in our faith, we need to connect with God, through regular prayer, reflection, bible reading and spiritual talks. In doing so, the Spirit speaks to us, prompting us. Like Peter, we need to be open to these promptings.

Coming back to the mortgage business, I have had situations where the clients had raised pertinent questions and interesting ideas have actually come out of these discussions. It was then I realized that because of my ‘experience’, I had become arrogant, thinking that I was the ‘expert’.

Similarly, we need to remember not to be arrogant; we need to be humble in order to be led by the Spirit.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Paul Wee)

Prayer: Lord, help us to be humble and to be open to Your promptings. Help us not to think that we are wiser than You and give us the strength to do what is right in Your eyes.

Thanksgiving: Thank You Father for giving us situations to teach us humility. We praise You for always sending Your Spirit to prompt us in the right direction to go.